As Gold Coast's injury crisis worsens, the outlook for the man who at times has carried the franchise team on his shoulders, Gary Ablett, is no clearer.
The Suns' superstar skipper admits he could be at least another month away from returning to help his team out of a situation made even more desperate on Monday with news that another of the club's front-line stars is likely to miss the rest of the season.
Just when it seemed as if Rodney Eade could not have any more misfortune in his first season as coach, it was revealed that key midfielder Dion Prestia requires surgery for a knee injury sustained against Collingwood on Saturday.
Prestia is expected to miss between 12 and 16 weeks, leaving the Suns without their entire first-choice midfield and four of the club's top five finishers in last year's best and fairest.
The latest update on Ablett on Monday is that he is "not too far away" from fully recovering from the shoulder injury that has denied the Suns access to the game's best player since round two.
Speaking on radio at the weekend, Ablett said he was hopeful of resuming full contact training soon but, even once he ticks that box, his actual return date could be up to four weeks away. "I catch up with the doctors every Monday to have a look over the shoulder. We do some strength testing and basically they tell me if I can start the contact work," Ablett said.
"I don't think I will be too far away from that and then it all depends on how the shoulder handles that. If it handles it all right, it will probably be a couple of weeks, if not, it will be about a month."
Ablett said watching the Suns lose five of the six games he has missed and virtually tumble out of contention for a finals position they were so heavily backed to achieve this season had been tough.
He also lamented, in hindsight, that perhaps pushing his recovery from shoulder surgery over the off-season "a little too hard" in an effort to be ready for round one was a mistake.
"I really wanted to get back for round one and I probably pushed it a little too hard and unfortunately I've ended up having to miss another six to eight weeks, which is hard," he said.
Scans on Monday revealed Prestia had torn the lateral meniscus in his left knee.
Meanwhile, Geelong's Jimmy Bartel has been hospitalised with an infection to the knee he had surgery on. He will remain in hospital until Thursday, which will delay his expected return by two weeks.
